Lagos — President of the ECOWAS Commission, Mohammed Ibn Chambas, has stressed the need for the Community to commit itself to creating a borderless zone, saying this is the only way to build the West African common market.

According to Chambas, if the ECOWAS protocols on free movement of persons are optimally implemented in a harmonised fashion, the rights of the citizenry could be better protected.

He said the freedom of movement promised citizens of the Community a long time ago and currently undermined by certain practices that have gained acceptance along the highways and at the borders should become a reality.

Chambers said these in a speech he delivered in Abuja, recently, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of adoption of the protocol on free movement of persons, the right of residence and establishment among citizens of the Community.

He paid homage to "founder-fathers" of ECOWAS, who , according to him, "deemed it necessary to put an end to the balkanisation of the sub-region by stepping out onto the path leading to creation of a vast single market in West Africa where full freedom of movement of persons, services and capital will be guaranteed."

He said the desire for economic integration was actualised through the signing of the ECOWAS Treaty in Lagos on May 28 , 1975, adding that the treaty "made provision for removal of obstacles to the free movement of persons," which he described as a sine qua non for the achievement of economic integration.

"It is a serious option that should steer ECOWAS towards the establishment of a vast single market within which free movement of persons and their goods should be guaranteed," he said, adding that "our borders should not be considered as demarcation lines, but as places for reconciliation, solidarity and sharing of experiences and resources."

He, however, lamented that though "ECOWAS will soon be 34-years old, it is painful to observe that non-tariff barriers which should have been eliminated a long time ago still exist, at times on a large scale, along the highways and at the airports."

He said such barriers frustrate and discourage users of the highways, giving them cause for remonstrance, and make them lose faith in ECOWAS.

According to Chambas,"this state of affairs, which is prevalent in all member states and causes concern for the Community authorities, is condemned at every meeting, but nothing concrete is done to find lasting solutions."

He noted that for national security reasons, each ECOWAS member state is obliged to take and implement control measures along the national and international highways, at the airports, and, especially, at the borders it shares with other member states.

He said such measures cannot be questioned because they are fully justified under the present circumstances.

He however warned that the desire to beef up security at the borders should not be used as an excuse by the security agencies to put up additional roadblocks to extort money from travellers. "Such roadblocks increase the insecurity of citizens and seriously damage trade," he said.

The ECOWAS Commission president affirmed that if the implementation of Community texts, especially those relating to free movement of persons, the right of residence and establishment within ECOWAS, is to improve, "member states should first and foremost undertake to demonstrate much more good will in the observance of commitments they make."

He disclosed that ECOWAS had begun formulating a programme for modernising immigration formalities at the borders by inter-connecting the various posts and putting in place an electronic system of registering travellers.

This, he said, is aimed at reconciling ECOWAS member states' security imperatives with the imperatives of free movement as sought via the Protocol on free movement of persons.

According to Chambas, "this technique will make it possible to obtain reliable information on travellers crossing the borders with travel documents containing biometric features," stressing that "the level of falsification of documents by which human and drug trafficking, cross-border crimes and harassments are perpetrated could be minimised."

He said that studies for the pilot phase of the project will soon start. "The Lagos-Abidjan corridor will be covered under this phase. The other borders will be gradually endowed with the same facilities. Improvement of the management of borders through strengthened cross-border cooperation in West Africa is another option sub-tending the ECOWAS Immigration Policy," he disclosed.

Chambas said further that "ECOWAS is working with the other border stakeholders to transform the borders into veritable bridges for the regional integration process, " maintaining: " To transform ECOWAS of States into an ECOWAS of People, the borders must necessarily fade away."